


Dec 9: Unfinished Business

by kuro49



Series: White Collar Advent calendar drabbles [9]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash, White Collar Advent 2014, episode tag s03e15: stealing home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-28 20:31:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2746013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/pseuds/kuro49
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next time, it is Paris in the summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dec 9: Unfinished Business

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who can't remember who Gordon Taylor is, he is the con-man from that baseball episode :D (To this day, I still remember the UST from season 3 so, sO keenly. This drabble has been a long time coming.)

The last time they’ve seen one another is when he is sliding that cheque across to him, high above in the Yankee Stadium overlooking the parking lot, keeping that promise he makes to all his men. Because his cons may be simple but they are effective, and no one, not ever, has had to get hurt for the money. 

Neal accepts. If only because the sun is warm on the leather of his jacket, if only because the rush of the con is still hot in their blood.

(Though that last bit remains a bonus surprise because Neal has really thought that passing Ruth’s first home run ball over to Gordon in the crowd would be the last time they see each other.)

The next time, it is Paris in the summer.

Not the summer Gordon talked about, but another one some time down the line once Neal can leave New York on his own and no one is there to chase him to the ends of the world. And summer in Paris is still something else, a whole other world, out of this one.

“You were going to cost me years in the big house that first time.” He has his eyes lowered, like he isn’t watching for a reaction. But Gordon Taylor has ordered two cups of espresso, and the chair across from him is sitting empty. It’s not so much anticipation as it is expectation when he looks up from his newspaper and smiles the same kind of smile like this is their first con all over again. “I almost didn’t mind, Neal.”

And the way he says his name is so, _so_ fond.

Neal takes a seat, takes the newspaper from Gordon's hands, folding it aside. And he can command attention in so many ways but it is always a little different when it comes to men like them.

Sitting across from Gordon Taylor, Neal Caffrey has to wonder whether this is how he wants it to end, a meeting in Paris not quite by chance.

“And your French Riviera?”

He shrugs, and it's easy, “It’s just a big empty house by the sea.”

Like it really is just that.

And for them, just the two of them, Neal can believe that.

He takes a sip, and says with a laugh.

"That’s definitely one way to put it.”

 

XXX Kuro


End file.
